Friday marked five years since Jennifer Farber Dulos disappeared. She was last seen on May 24, 2019 after dropping her five kids off at school in New Canaan.
Her estranged husband, Fotis Dulos, was charged with her murder, but died by suicide before he ever went to trial. Investigators maintain the case is still active and even five years later they continue to work to bring closure to her family and friends.
A memorial is still in place outside Waveny Park in New Canaan to honor Jennifer. It's made up of flowers, painted stones, and banners calling for justice for Jennifer.
“You know, I think there is something to be said for markers, for marking dates. Five years is a really long time, especially in the lives of kids,” Jennifer's close friend and spokesperson for the family Carrie Luft said in an interview done March 7 with NBC Connecticut.
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Jennifer was declared legally dead in October of 2023, but her body still has never been found.
“Its the body… where is Jennifer, that’s all that matters at this point,” said Brian Foley, a retired Hartford police detective Friday.
He described when the case made it to Hartford. State Police investigators came to the Hartford Police Department. Their main suspect was Jennifer’s estranged husband, Fotis Dulos. Cell phone data placed Fotis in Hartford the night Jennifer disappeared. When police came looking for support from Hartford police, Foley remembers their first move.
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“He said hey, he was in Hartford what do you think he was doing there, we said give us 20 minutes we will show you,” said Foley.
Using surveillance video from cameras strategically placed throughout the capital city, police saw Fotis Dulos disposing of garbage bags in various trash cans along Albany Avenue in Hartford. The contents of those bags became key evidence in the trial of Michelle Troconis, the girlfriend of Fotis Dulos when Jennifer went missing.
“I don’t think they have such a clear case without it,” said Foley of the evidence obtained in Hartford.
Troconis was convicted in March on six charges related to the death and disappearance of Jennifer. The charges include conspiracy to commit murder, evidence tampering, conspiracy to commit evidence tampering, and hindering prosecution.
Alleged co-conspirator in the case, Kent Mawhinney, has yet to go to trial.
“She was not some photo online that she was a real incredible, vivid, hilarious, wonderful person,” Luft said in the March 7 interview.
Jennifer was a real person, who sparked real change. Jennifer's law, state legislation that expands domestic violence definition to include coercive control, was passed and signed in 2021.
The law was inspired in part by Jennifer Dulos, and in part by Jennifer Magnano, who was killed in a murder-suicide by her estranged husband in 2007.
Current and former investigators maintain the case continues to be about bringing answers to Jennifer's family about what happened to her.
“That’s all that matters to the family. They may never heal, there may never be closure, but it would certainly go a long way to some degree being able to heal. Where is Jennifer?" Foley asked.
At the memorial in New Canaan, Friday was a normal day at for many at Waveny Park to kick of Memorial Day weekend, the same as it was in 2019.
Some passing by the memorial were unaware it has been five years since Jennifer dissapeared, and others, while reluctant to offer quotes for the story, say the wound left in Jennifer’s absence is still open.
The friends and family of Jennifer Farber Dulos said they would mark the day privately, but offered a statement in advance of the five year mark:
“As of May 24, Jennifer Farber Dulos has been gone for five years. We miss her every day, in every way. There are so many daily reminders of Jennifer—a shared reference, a musical riff, a delighted laugh, a graceful silhouette in the distance. Her strength of character, her intelligence, and her tenacity live on in her children. She would be so very, very proud of the young adults they have become.
For us, five years is not a milestone but a marker of cumulative loss and longing. Life goes on, yet grief goes on alongside it, a shadow, a current, the presence of absence.
We hold fast in our belief that Jennifer’s body will be found. The investigation is active, and we are ever grateful to the Connecticut State Police and the state’s attorney’s office for their continuing work on this case.
In Jennifer’s memory, we encourage you to hug your loved ones; take time to listen to a child; play your favorite song; or send a note to brighten someone’s day.
We also urge those who can do so to donate to local organizations that support survivors of intimate partner violence, such as Interval House Hartford; and to organizations that work on behalf of missing and murdered women of color, such as the Black and Missing Foundation, National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, and many others.
Thank you very much for respecting the privacy of Jennifer’s family and loved ones.”
